


Home is A Feeling (Not a Place)

by sleepymarvel



Category: Flight 29 Down
Genre: Character Study, F/M, basically this show gave 11 year old me so many emotions and they're resurfacing, me? writing flight 29 down fanfic as an adult? it's more likely than you think, melissa centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-06
Updated: 2019-09-06
Packaged: 2020-10-10 23:55:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20536748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleepymarvel/pseuds/sleepymarvel
Summary: Taylor drops a flyer on top of Melissa’s notebook, smiles big and perfect, “I’m having a party tonight and you two love birds better be there.” She winks, “Flight 29 attendance is mandatory.”





	Home is A Feeling (Not a Place)

It takes a while for anything to feel normal. 

The first night home Melissa’s parents take her out to dinner at her favorite restaurant. They can’t stop hugging her, crying, and telling her how much they've missed her. It's almost suffocating, despite the fact Melissa is just as happy to see them.

Melissa moves the food around with her fork, imagines Daley telling her to make sure she only eats her share of the rations, and she gets a pit in her stomach. She eats a little bit. It’s not a coconut, or a banana, or anything she’s used to. It's too much at once. It almost makes her ill.

She tries to explain to her parents that she isn’t hungry, but they don’t understand.

She eats for their sake.

The press is even worse than she imagined. People notice her outside the restaurant, getting into the taxi on the way home. Melissa hates it. She ducks her head, tries to ignore people with cameras and questions.

People asking questions, invading their personal space; her parents are getting upset.

Melissa tries to imagine that Eric and Taylor are soaking up the cameras and press time excitedly, hopefully that makes up for the fact she just gave the spectators the cold shoulder. 

She can’t sleep when she gets home. She stares at her ceiling and sees a night of warm glowing stars. She hears crickets. Her bed doesn’t feel right; it’s too soft. She thinks bitterly that maybe she'd sleep better in her sleeping bag on the beach. 

When she falls asleep, she thinks about Jackson. _Cody Jackson._ She thinks about how safe she felt when he hugged her back on that beach somewhere near Guam. She thinks about the promise they made each other. 

He calls her the next day and she’s smiling so wide she thinks she’s going to burst.

“Hey stranger. How’s it feel being back in the real world?” He drawls when she picks up the phone, his voice makes her want to melt.

“Surreal.” She replies and she’s still smiling, “I don’t have to boil water anymore before I drink it. So that’s a plus.”

“It's definitely one of the perks. Want to do something later? That doesn't involve survival. Since we don’t have to go back to school for a while?”

“Yeah!” She says, "I'd love to!"

She hates that she sounds so eager, but Jackson doesn't mind. It's cute.

* * *

It’s strange being back in school, sitting at a desk and doing calculations instead of washing clothes and lugging water back and forth.

Everyone reacts differently.

Taylor loves it and she’s more popular than ever. Nathan tells a lot of stories to his friends, mainly about how he heroically climbed a coconut tree (but not adding the part where he fell the first time). Eric makes a lot of jokes about it; about how cool it was and how he’s going to be famous. Daley talks about how well everyone handled the situation and how she saved the day.

Nobody really talks to Melissa about it and she’s thankful for that. It’s not something she feels like reliving; but they read _Lord of The Flies_ in English class and it hits a nerve.

Everyone’s thinking the same thing, even if the teacher is comically oblivious to the energy in the room.

“So, is it realistic?” Cornered by her locker after class, feeling more than a little claustrophobic, Melissa looks up at an attractive hockey player she is sure doesn't even know her name, “Come on," he presses, "The book. Was it really like that? Did you guys really feel like murdering each other? I bet Jackson did. Knowing him. You’re dating him right?”

Melissa’s at a loss for words. Nathan’s locker is beside hers, but he’s nowhere in sight. She could really use his backup right now. She's never been good at confrontation, especially confrontation with attractive hockey players, and she's not sure she'll be able to put the words together to make a coherent response. 

She's not even upset he asked about the island. She figured people would. She's upset that he's insulting Jackson without even knowing him. She hates that people think so poorly about him without even taking the chance to get to know him, hates that people treat him like he's an outsider; or worse a loose canon. 

“It’s—” She starts, trying to find something to say. Her cheeks are noticeably warm and pink. She doesn’t know how to respond and she hates it. “It wasn’t—”

Jackson’s beside her a minute later, appearing seemingly out of nowhere, eyeing the hockey player with dangerous look, “What’s the problem?”

“It’s nothing.” Melissa says, because she doesn’t want to make a big deal about this, just thankful someone's there to help defuse the situation, “He was just asking a question about the homework.”

“Yeah.” The hockey player says, meeting Jackson’s stare, “I was asking if you all went crazy on that island like in the book. I wouldn’t be surprised. Someone like you.”

Jackson really wants to hit him. He really wants to break this kid’s face. His fist is clenched, knuckles turning white, and he almost does it; except he sees the look of dread on Melissa’s face.

He restrains himself for her. 

He relaxes his hand. Grins at the hockey player like he’s unaffected, “Yeah, it was crazy. You should’ve been there.”

Somehow that makes Melissa even more uneasy, sure that something bad will happen. She shuts her locker, grabs Jackson’s arm and starts towards lunch, turning briefly to address the hockey player as they leave, “Good luck on the homework!”

* * *

Taylor invites her to a party, which is weird. She'd been close with Taylor even before the crash, close with most of the others too, but Taylor never invited her to a party before. Something must have changed between them, but she can't put her finger on it. 

She’s sitting on campus at lunch, leaning against a tree and quizzing Jackson on chem problems, when the blonde appears in front of them in a flash of pink and sparkling strawberry lip gloss.

Taylor drops a flyer on top of Melissa’s notebook, smiles big and perfect, “I’m having a party tonight and you two love birds better be there.” She winks, “Flight 29 attendance is mandatory.”

Melissa goes because she thinks Jackson wants to.

Jackson goes because he thinks Melissa wants to.

Neither of them actually want to be there. 

Melissa immediately remembers why she’s never invited to parties. She stays close to the punch bowl at first, talking with Nathan about something that happened in PE earlier that day, generally avoiding social interaction. She glances at Jackson while Nathan's saying something, spaces out. He's drinking a beer with Taylor, Eric, and a few of their friends. Melissa glances down at her own glass of non-alcoholic punch and frowns. 

She wonders how it's so easy for Jackson to be social. It so hard for her.

"Mel?" Nathan's says, waving his hand in front of her face, "Are you still in there?"

"Yeah." She smiles, "Sorry I was just wondering if there's any beer left?"

Nathan's face lights up, "Oh yeah. In the kitchen. Help yourself."

She’s more of a lightweight than she remembers, but it’s not like she has much to compare it to. The only other time she had alcohol was on the island. Eric had found a bottle that the Captain had left in the cockpit of the plane before he took off across the island. There was only half left and six of them to drink it excluding Lex, so she didn't actually get drunk. At the time she'd thought she was just good at holding her alcohol. 

Melissa finds Jackson, and she wonders if she's actually drunk, because she's kissing him hard (and he's kissing her back now).

Her face is warm and flushed when she pulls away, his hand is on her arm just above her wrist. People are looking, mainly because they think Melissa is a prude and they’re in shock, and Jackson’s turning a shade of pink that nobody thought was possible.

Eric makes a gross comment. Taylor giggles.

Jackson regains his composure, glances around the room, sighs. He looks down at Melissa who's still looking up at him all flushed. "Let's get you home." He has to practically pull her with him, “Yeah, show’s over everybody.”

Taylor laughs again, and faux pouts, “Aw, Jackson, it was just getting good!”

Eric bursts out with another huge laugh. 

“Shut up.” Jackson says, but he's smiling. 

Melissa falls asleep in his truck on the way home.


End file.
